Vehicles with inflatable tires such as passenger cars, light and heavy duty trucks, tractor trailers, buses, commercial delivery vehicles, among other motorized forms of transportation and trailers pulled by such vehicles are conventionally equipped with spare tires. Some spare tires are stored under the vehicle using a tire carrier which includes a tire winch for raising and lowering the spare tire between a raised or stored position and a lowered or accessed position. The winch typically raises and lowers the spare tire using a flexible member such as a cable or cord which is wound and unwound on a spool or reel. A secondary latch is often provided to secure the spare tire in the stored position. If the flexible member or winch fails while the spare tire is in the stored position, the secondary latch ensures that the spare tire remains in the stored position.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,341, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein in its entirety, discloses a secondary latch for a tire carrier. The secondary latch includes a latch member which is pivotably mounted to swing a pair of arcuate fingers between a locked position and an unlocked position. The lock member is biased to the locked position by gravity. The lock member is selectively pivoted to the unlocked position by a lever which is activated by a cranking member when engaging the winch.
While these secondary latches may effectively retain the spare tire in the stored position under some conditions, they have numerous shortcomings. For example, loads are transmitted through a relatively small contact area, a relatively large number of parts are required, they are relatively difficult to assemble, and relatively large number of high tolerance components are required. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a secondary latch which has improved load distribution, reduced weight, ease of assembly, and a reduced number of total parts and high tolerance parts.